Thread: Say "NO" to Toy Drives

Interesting announcement I heard yesterday on TV: giving to all Toy Drives is DOWN and they are pleading for more toys! I'm wondering if the general public is beginning to get it that the toys are not going to poor American children! I suspect that another backlash of public sentiment will be less money given to needy groups in Mexico (like orphanages). That makes me sad, but people are in the mood to demonstrate their anger towards Mexico for pushing their poverty on to this country.

Originally Posted by DJ

Interesting announcement I heard yesterday on TV: giving to all Toy Drives is DOWN and they are pleading for more toys! I'm wondering if the general public is beginning to get it that the toys are not going to poor American children! I suspect that another backlash of public sentiment will be less money given to needy groups in Mexico (like orphanages). That makes me sad, but people are in the mood to demonstrate their anger towards Mexico for pushing their poverty on to this country.

Not only that.........But is the money really going to the "needy" kids in the Mexican orpahanges????

On another site..........A woman posted a somewhat similar story about the food boxes.

She said that she volunteered there-----and EVERY week the same families were showing up (illegals).

She said that they would take the food boxes and place them into their brand new vehicles.

She said that everyone there knew that they were illegal----and that they were not supposed to be showing up every week. However, the administrators said that they were not allowed to question them-----due to civil rights/racist accusations.

The only answer appears to be for them----churches, public organizations---- to give out the names of the families and their history----so that individuals can decide to give to them alone.

Do you know, if I had kids, I could buy enough at garage sales for almost nothing through the year to see that they had something for Christmas.

Learn to sew or make things.

We have been fortunate in that we have never been truly down and out - as in couldn't make house payment, or buy some groceries, but there have been times it was very tight. I can/could sew and my kids gots lots of homemade things, toys, etc. My husband made toys, doll beds, etc. from scraps. Our tree was decorated with cookies we baked and decorated together.

Even when we no longer had to really worry about being able to buy things, I still always put one item under the tree that I had made for my children, and we still baked and decorated cookies for the tree.

nntrixie, those are the best kind of Christmases to me. I love to make stuff and bake more than buy. My kids count on that kind of thing and feel cheated if I bought cookies or deserts. Gifts right now we will buy (time constraints these days), but the baking is a big deal here, plus we give homemade treats out as gifts.

I also love trees that look rustic (ours is really rustic, we cut it down up near Mt. Hood and it has a really "wild" feel to it) and with homemade ornaments.

Christmas has become way too commercialized and plastic, we have gotten away from our own cultural roots in the celebration of it all.

I've volunteered for several toy drives that kind of 'closed the door on you when you weren't looking. This proved to me how crooked they were and made me very skeptical. I volunteered mostly because i've had a disability since the age of 7. I won't say what it is,but some might figure it out when I give the cause of it. It was caused from my step father beating me in the head with a rubber hose.
Now I could have chosen the draw SSI and sit on my ass at home and watch TV, but I didn't
It effects, or it could effects alot of things in my life including driving, but I never let it get in the way of me working. I'll admit, I've lie to some employers about it in order to get the job. One was when I lived in Texas and worked for "Fort Bend County Water District #2". After that I moved to Ca. and picked up a skill which I still have today.
All of this time I could have been recieving SSI checks but I turned it down because I knew that there were people in worst shape than I was and COULDN'T work.
Now in OK. my job is seasonal and I decided to draw Disabilty Insurance during my off season. What I didn't know is that my first check would be "Retro-Active" . I told SS to take 10% out as income tax and another 10% was to be given to the "Red Cross" each Christmas and to send me reciepts showing that that's were the money went.
Anyone recieving money from SS can have Taxes deducted(optional). They can't say they didn't know because theyr'e given the option during the interview.

Originally Posted by Bren4824

On another site..........A woman posted a somewhat similar story about the food boxes.

She said that she volunteered there-----and EVERY week the same families were showing up (illegals).

She said that they would take the food boxes and place them into their brand new vehicles.

She said that everyone there knew that they were illegal----and that they were not supposed to be showing up every week. However, the administrators said that they were not allowed to question them-----due to civil rights/racist accusations.

It use to be that everyone had to sign in order to get anything. Just for that reason.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Do you know, if I had kids, I could buy enough at garage sales for almost nothing through the year to see that they had something for Christmas.

Learn to sew or make things.

We have been fortunate in that we have never been truly down and out - as in couldn't make house payment, or buy some groceries, but there have been times it was very tight. I can/could sew and my kids gots lots of homemade things, toys, etc. My husband made toys, doll beds, etc. from scraps. Our tree was decorated with cookies we baked and decorated together.

Even when we no longer had to really worry about being able to buy things, I still always put one item under the tree that I had made for my children, and we still baked and decorated cookies for the tree.

I remember when I was a kid my mother made these star orniments out of ribbon and these sugar eggs with different displays inside.

I was still in San Diego last Christmas, so when the 'Toys for Tots" toy drive box showed up in the reception area of my company, for the first time I decided not to donate. My suspicions were that the majority of the "underpiveledged" kids who would receive the toys would be anchor babies. I wasn't going to play any part in it.

But I'll tell you of an organization that I really respect. I have first-hand experience with this organization, and I wholeheartedly believe that they do the work of angels.

That organization is called the "Make- a-Wish Foundation". If you haven't heard of them, their sole purpose is to grant dying wishes to children with terminal illnesses.

My first encounter with this organization was when I was 22 years old. I was a tour guide at the San Diego Zoo. I drove the tour busses and gave narrated tours. One day I was told there would be a family on my tour that would be up in the front of the bus with me. The parents and one of the sons would sit in the seat behind me, and the other son would be next to me in the area usually reserved for wheel chairs. I figured this son must have been wheel-chair bound.

Not hardly. This beautiful 10-year-old boy was lying on a gurny. His face and body whiter than the sheets he was lying on. He was completely bald. He was dying of leukemia.

His dying wish was to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. He loved tigers and wanted to see a tiger up close. Oh my God...I could barely get through the tour. I looked at that face, so pale and so tired. He was too weak to sit up, so they had the gurney propped up so he could see. His face lit up as much as it could when he saw the animals, and I FORCED myself not to cry. I wanted so badly for him to enjoy his tour.

As soon as the tour was over and they were out of earshot, I broke down. After that, I looked into the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and I learned of all the good they do. So many families, even if they are not actually poor, cannot afford to grant their child's last wish. Especially with mounting medical bills. This lovely foundation helps to fund the dreams of dying children.

Most children's wishes are to meet a celebrity, and you would be surprised at the number of celebrities who will do this, WITHOUT PUBLICITY. Did you know that Nicole Kidman tries to fulfill every Make-a-Wish Foundation's request to meet a dying child who wants to meet her? And she refuses to allow their to be any publicity about it.

But there are other wishes too. Disneyland is very common, and so is the Zoo and Sea World.

I won't go on and on about this, but if you have anything spare to give after supporting ALIPAC, you might think about donating to the MAW Foundation.